BRIGHTON — An Adams County judge on Friday sentenced Becky Trujillo to the maximum of eight years in prison after a jury convicted her of child abuse related to the February 2012 death of her 4-year-old grandson.

The same jury acquitted her of murder charges filed after Gabriel Trujillo was found naked and unresponsive in her Commerce City home.

In June, a jury found Trujillo guilty of criminally negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. Defense attorneys argued at the trial that the boy's death was a result of a subdural hematoma — a brain bleed — caused by an accidental fall months before his death. They said the child's bruised body was a result of the hematoma, which they said made Gabriel increasingly clumsy.

On Friday, Trujillo pleaded with the judge to consider probation, saying she never hurt her grandson.

"Please don't send me to prison, I don't deserve that. I'm a good person," Trujillo said. "I didn't hurt him. I love my grandchild. If I could do it over, I would get 100 doctors."

But Gabriel's two older sisters and mother asked the judge to send Trujillo to jail.

"The things that she has done has made me very sad. It hurts," said 14-year-old Krista. "I wish she could stay in jail."

"I just want her to pay, to feel the pain my son felt," Christine Trujillo said.

The judge said that while the jury had not found that Trujillo's actions caused Gabriel's death, he said the child abuse charges were not charges that equated with a mistake either.

"Children the age of Gabriel are completely helpless," Judge Thomas Richard Ensor said. "As a result, we as caretakers of children of tender years bear the highest responsibility.

"This child received numerous bruises. They all occurred when he was under your care, when you were supposed to be protecting him and you failed," the judge told Trujillo.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Trujillo's stories were inconsistent and that they didn't fully explain the extent of Gabriel's injuries.

When police were called to her home in February, she told police the boy had fallen from a chair at the dining room table, hitting his head on the carpeted floor. Doctors at Children's Hospital Colorado had to remove half of the boy's skull to relieve pressure from his brain injuries. He was also hypothermic and severely bruised.

Gabriel died three days later.

Gabriel Trujillo (handout)

Members of the boy's paternal family tried to report the alleged abuse to Adams County child welfare just a week earlier but were told to call Commerce City police.

Nothing came of that call.

Social workers were already investigating and had visited the home in early January, after Gabriel's teachers reported they suspected the boy was being abused.

After the sentencing, Christine Trujillo said she was pleased that Becky Trujillo got the maximum sentence but lamented that besides losing her son, she also lost much of her family as they support Becky Trujillo and believe she is innocent.